How Hydraulic Brake Cylinders Improve Bicycle Wheel Truing Process

With its wheel-truing machine, Dutch company Holland Mechanics BV specializes in making sure the spokes on bicycle wheels are loaded with the correct tension, avoiding rim warpage. By integrating ACE hydraulic brake cylinders into the machine’s design, the company discovered it can better control the machine’s motion, resulting in several benefits.

Avoiding rebound. Initially, during operation, rubber buffers were used to absorb the movement of the truing machine, causing a rebound. This effect, combined with stricter customer requirements, prompted the designers to look for a different solution. They decided to switch out the rubber buffers for hydraulic brake cylinders from ACE Controls, which would prevent any rebound from happening.

Reducing tolerance. The addition of ACE brake cylinders into the wheel-truing machine, along with improvements to the machine’s drive unit and the integration of other, more precise components, lowered tolerance values from ±0.4 mm to ±0.1 mm.

Increasing production speed. Thanks to the cylinders, production speed also increased by 10 percent. With the machine’s movement under control, gripping accuracy has improved. No longer does the machine’s grippers miss the spokes, bringing production to a grinding halt.

ACE hydraulic brake cylinders (model HB-12-20-EE-P), which resemble industrial gas springs in terms of their structure, have a small, compact design, meaning they can be easily integrated into your existing system. With diameters of 12 mm and stroke lengths of 20 mm, these components can apply compression forces of up to 180 N and have an operating temperature range of -20 to +80°C for use in virtually any environment.